Maelstrom runner
by Grimm Phoenix244
Summary: Naruto gets stuck in the Maze, replaces Thomas. Thats it.


I don't own anything

He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air. Metal ground against metal; a lurching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He fell down at the sudden movement and shuffled backwards on his hands and feet, drops of sweat beading on his face despite the cool air. His back struck a hard metal wall; he slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping his eyes would soon adjust to the darkness.

With another jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft. Harsh sounds of chains and pulleys, like the workings of an ancient steel factory, echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls with a hollow, tinny whine. The lightless elevator swayed back and forth as it ascended, turning the boy's stomach sour with nausea; a smell like burnt oil invaded his senses, making him feel worse. He wanted to cry' but no tears come, guess he was too awesome to cry. So he just sit there alone, waiting.

 _"My name is Naruto...Uzumaki,"_ he thought. Come to think of it, that...was all he remembered about his life.

He didn't understand how this was possible. His mind functioned without flaw, trying to calculate his surroundings and predicament. Knowledge flooded his thoughts, facts and images, memories and details of a world and how it works. He pick petals falling down a from a tree, running down a leaf-strewn road, eating Ramen!

And yet he didn't know where he came from, or how he'd gotten inside the dark lift, or who his parents were. At least he knew his last name so that's a plus. Images of people flashed across his mind, but there was no recognition, their faces replaced with haunted smears of colour (color?). He couldn't think of one person he knew, or recall a single conversation.

The room continued its ascent towards god knows where, swaying, Naruto for his part grow immune to the ceaseless rattling of the chains that pulled him upwards. A long time passed. Minutes stretched into hours, although it was impossible to know for sure because for sure because every second smeed like an eternity. No! He was smarter than that. Trusting his gut, he knew he'd been moving for roughly half an hour.

Strangely enough, he felt his fear whisked away like a swarm of gnats caught in the wind, replaced by an intense curiosity. He _really_ wanted to know where he was and what was happening.

With a groan and then a clonk, the rising room halted, the sudden change jolted Naruto from his position and threw him across the hard floor. _"That hurt!"_ he thought as scrambled to his feet, he felt the room _sway_ less and less until it finally stilled. Everything fell silent.

A minute passed. Two. He looked in every direction but saw only the cool metal. He groaned in frustration, his echo amplified through the air, like the haunted moan of death. It faded, and silence returned. He pounded on the walls with his fists hoping someone would hear, no way was he screaming for help, that's just not his style.

Sadly nothing.

Naruto backed into the corner once again and did what any normal person would do, he did...nothing. It wasn't like he was gonna get out.

A loud clank rang out from above him and he sucked in a startled breath as he looked up. A straight line of light appeared across the ceiling of the room, and Naruto watched as it expanded. A heavy granting sound revealed double sliding doors being forced open. After so long in the darkness, the light stabbed his eyes, he looked away, covering his face with both hands.

He heard noises above, allies or maybe a threat.

"Look at that shank."

"What's with those whiskers?"

"How old is he?"

"Looks like a klunk in a T-shirt."

"You're the Klunk, shuck-face."

"Dude it smells like feet in down there!"

"Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, Greenie."

"Ain't no ticket back, bro."

Naruto was hit with a wave of confusion. The voices were odd, tinged with echo, some words completely foreign none felt familiar. He willed his eyes to adjust as squinted towards the light and those speaking. At first he could see only shifting shadows, but they soon turned into shapes of bodies, people bending over the hole in the ceiling, looking down at him, pointing. " _Rude much!"_

And then, as if a camera had sharped it's forcus, the faces cleared. They were boys, all of them. _"well I'm out before they try to hold me and free their-"._ Boys some young, some old but all were just teenagers. Kids. Naruto still kept his guard up.

Someone lowered a rope from above, the end of it tied into a big loop. Naruto hesitated they might be threats, then stepped into it with his left foot so that if they tried some thing his good leg will be free kick them in the balls, he then clutched the rope as he was yanked towards the sky. Hands reached down, lots of hands, grabbing him by his cloths, pulling him up. _"If anyone's tries som_ e _thing weird I'm gonna break their hand!"_

The world seemed to spin, a swirling mist of faces and colour (color) and light. Boy this was giving him a headache. The chorus of voices had grown silent, but someone spoke as they yanked him over the sharp edge of the dark box. And Naruto he'd never forget those words.

"Nice to meet ya, shank," the boy said. "Welcome to the (ant farm!) Glade."

Naruto stood up straight and had the dust cleared from his shirt and pants. He was consumed with curiosity as he looked around not noticing that he was rotating in a slow circle. The other kids snickered and stared; one reached out and tried to poke him with a finger but Naruto roughly grabbed the boys hand shaved it away without even looking in the boys general direction. There had to be at least fifty of them, their clothes smudged and sweaty as if they've been hard at work, all shapes and sizes and races, their hair of varying lengths. Naruto's flickered between the boys and the bizarre place in which he'd found himself.

They stood in a vast courtyard several times the size of a football field, surrounded by four enormous walls made of grey stone and covered in spots with thick ivy. The walls had to be hundreds of feet high and formed a perfect square around them, each side spilt in the exact middle by an opening as tall as the walls themselves that, from what Naruto could see, led to passages and long corridors beyond.

"Look at the Greenbean," a scratchy voice said. Naruto turned around to see who it came from, and the own was one ugly fellow. "Gonna break his shuck neck checkin' out the new digs." several boys laughed. Before anything could be said in a burst of inhuman speed Naruto bolted straight for one of the opens. The others were amazed at his speed but also curious as to why he was running like a...

"Why is the klunk running like a shuck _ninja."_

"Who cares look at how fast his going."

"Yeah his gonna reach the walls in record time."

"Looks like we gotta' a runner."

"Dudes, his a ninja."

"Alby, you seeing this right? This s-shank is...fast.""

"Yeah Newt, I see it."

Naruto ran as fast as his legs could carry him, hoping all this a dream or rather a nightmare that he would very much like to wake up from.

 _END CHAPTER_

Chris here and I did not writte this just posting Grimm who might I add is drunk as fuck!

So yeah what do think? I myself don't know it's not my story so yeah review fav and follow.


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